Breaking the glass ceiling,but facing a glass cliff? The role of organizational decline in women's representation in leadership positions in Dutch civil service organizations

Despite efforts to increase gender diversity and equality worldwide, women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in public bureaucracies. This article speaks to the debate on how organizational context, more specifically organizational decline, may influence gender representation in such leadership positions. Based on role congruity theory and glass cliff theory this article empirically examines whether and how excessive workforce reductions are associated with changes in the representation of women in leadership positions in Dutch civil service organizations. Panel analyses on administrative data show that women's representation in leadership positions varies over time, but is not significantly affected by excessive workforce reductions. Overall, the analyses do not provide evidence for a glass cliff for women in Dutch civil service organizations. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

Agilität als Chance für einen neuen Anlauf zum demokratischen Unternehmen?

There has been a long-standing discussion since the 1980s about the question whether new production models harbor a potential for extended employee participation and involvement, in most cases with disillusioning results. This paper is concerned with so called “agile methods”, which play an important part in the area of knowledge work in the course of the digital transformation. On the basis of two case studies from software development and industrial R&D, the paper examines the concrete implementation of these methods and the employees’ perspective upon them and their consequences. The result is that agile methods present a potential for extended employee participation and involvement; however, the realization of this potential depends on the concrete way how the agile concept of “empowerment” is implemented.     

Ahmadis or Indonesians? The polarization of post-reform public debates on Islam and orthodoxy

Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, Indonesian public discourse about “mainstream” Muslim identity and practice has polarized sharply into various factions. This article offers a detailed analysis of a subset of this discourse that focuses on the Ahmadiyya in order to grasp how the new normative contours of Islam are being shaped in Indonesia. I make three arguments: First, the discourse is homogenizing what was once a wide spectrum of identitarian positions, and that consequently, Islamic diversity in Indonesia is shrinking. Second, the various internally homogenized sets of arguments for and against the Ahmadiyya mis-engage with each other in a way that produces social fragmentation and further polarization. Third, these arguments produce exclusionary mechanisms that reinforce each other. Both the opponents of the Ahmadiyya and their defenders exclude Ahmadis from conceptions of an Indonesian “majority.” This dynamic in Indonesian public discourse has resulted in the acceleration of the marginalization of the Ahmadiyya within an increasingly fragmented Indonesian society.     

“That shit doesn't fly”: Subcultural constraints on prison radicalization

Many observers describe prison subcultures as inherently and irredeemably antisocial. Research directly ties prison subcultures to violence, gang membership, and poor reintegration. In extreme cases, research has also suggested that prison subcultures contribute to incarcerated people joining radical groups or embracing violent extremist beliefs. These claims, however, ignore key differences in the larger cultural and social context of prisons. We examine the relationship between prison subcultures and prison radicalization based on semistructured qualitative interviews with 148 incarcerated men and 131 correctional officers from four western Canadian prisons. We outline several imported features of the prison subculture that make incarcerated people resilient to radicalized and extremist messaging. These features include 1) national cultural imaginaries; 2) the racial profile of a prison, including racial sorting or a lack thereof; and 3) how radicalization allowed incarcerated men and correctional officers to act outside the otherwise agreed-to subcultural rules. Our research findings stress the importance of contemplating broader sociocultural influences when trying to understand the relationship between radicalization and prison dynamics and politics.     

Evaluating the sensitivity,stability, and cross-reactivity of commercial fentanyl immunoassay test strips

Illicit fentanyl has flooded the United States' drug market, increasing the risk of overdose and poisonings throughout the general population and accidental exposure among law enforcement officers confiscating the increasing number of seizures. Fentanyl test strips (FTS) are used to obtain presumptive information about the presence of fentanyl in a suspected sample. However, their adoption by law enforcement personnel and seized-drug analysts has been limited because most products are advertised for urine testing, not for assays using water solutions. This study presents an evaluation of four commercial FTS: Rapid Response from BTNX, Inc.; T-Dip Fentanyl (FTY) Urine Dip Cards obtained from Amazon.com ; Premier BioDip FYL10 from Premier Biotech Inc.; and MobileDetect Fentanyl strips from DetectaChem, Inc. Performance characteristics curves were used to compare the products' sensitivity, showing that all can reliably detect fentanyl in aqueous solutions at concentrations below 1 μg/mL, with some of the tests able to reliably detect the drug at 200 ng/mL. A stability study demonstrates the performance of all four FTS brands was only slightly affected after 30 days of storage at two extreme environmental conditions. Fentanyl-related substances are also evaluated using the Rapid Response FTS, which showed high cross-reactivity with para-fluorofentanyl and acetylfentanyl, but lower with ortho-chlorofentanyl, carfentanil, and 4-ANPP. Users should be aware that FTS may give false-negative results even when potentially dangerous levels of carfentanil are present. When testing other common drugs, adulterants, and diluents frequently encountered in seized tablets, concentration-dependent results were obtained and multiple instances of false positives were recorded.     

Leadership Experiences Within Civil Organizations and Candidacy in Public Elections: Causal Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Approach

Standing as a candidate in public elections has been characterized as the ultimate act of political participation. We test the hypothesis that acquiring office within civil organizations increases the probability of becoming a candidate in public elections. In order to take self-selection problems into account, we provide quasi-experimental evidence using election discontinuities, in which we compare the likelihood of being nominated for public office between closely ranked winners and losers in Swedish student union (SU) elections. Our original data cover 5,000 SU candidates and register data on their candidacies in public elections (1991–2010). The analysis provides support to the hypothesis: Students elected to SU councils were about 34 percent (6 percentage points) more likely to become a candidate in a public election than SU council candidates who were not elected. The causal impact is fairly stable over time. The analysis makes important contributions to two interrelated bodies of literature: First, it provides political recruitment literature with causal evidence that acquiring leadership experiences at arenas outside of representative democratic institutions facilitate entry into election processes. Second, it provides strong evidence to an increasingly contested issue within political participation research by showing that certain organizational activities increase individuals’ political involvement.     

„Outstanding universal value“. Die Arbeit an der Universalisierung des Wertvollen im UNESCO-Welterbe

The UNESCO World Heritage List is an international inventory of natural and cultural sites that are, according to the conception of its initiators and administrators, of importance for mankind as a whole. The evaluation of the list can be interpreted as a specific form of the social production of the valuable. Focusing on the cultural sites, the paper argues that the production of World Heritage renders a form of practical universalization of the value of particular goods. It centres on the questions of how a site is produced as culturally valuable, how its value is universalized, and what role is played by the concept of authenticity in the process. Two aspects of the evaluation practice are examined with regards to the production of universalization: working with and working on the assessment criteria. It is shown that universality and particularity are interwoven in this practice.     

Hierarchical,Decentralized, or Something Else? Opposition Networks in the German Bundestag

Members of the German parliament may force government to publicly answer questions by issuing minor interpellations (kleine Anfragen). We use 3,608 interpellations from the session 2009–13 that have been signed by authoring and supporting members to construct the social network of support relations among members within the three opposition parties. We find that parties differ markedly in terms of internal structure. While social democrats organize hierarchically, Greens cooperate horizontally. The network for socialist Linke in contrast shows signs of homophily and social segregation. Our approach yields a novel perspective on intraparty politics in parliamentary systems which are notoriously difficult to analyze.     

The State of the Art of Child Hearings in Germany. Results of a Nationwide Representative Study in German Courts

According to German family law, in family court proceedings that deal with custody or access rights, family judges are obligated to personally hear the child if the feelings, ties, or will of the child are significant for the decision. In a research study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Justice, a nationwide representative survey of all judges compiled their personal information and their attitudes and expectations as well as various parameters regarding the concrete practice of hearing children. Also, with a very complex methodological design, over 50 children and their parents were studied one week in advance of the hearing, directly before and after the hearing, and four weeks following the hearing. The results of the study are presented, particularly those pertaining to the burden and relief for the children and the expectations of judges. The practical experiences of family judges in personally hearing children are included as well.     

Firm entries and exits in Estonian urban municipalities: urban hinterlands and rural peripheries, 2005–2012

This paper studies firm entries and exits in Estonian urban areas, urban hinterlands, and rural peripheries following EU accession, and it analyzes the effects of changes in population density, employee income level, unemployment, and economic climate on firm entries and exits. It concludes that the firm entry rate exceeded the exit rate in all of the years between 2005 and 2012. The urban hinterland is characterized by the highest level of both entries and exits. The fixed-effect regression models show that income and recession, which are the most significant factors to impact on local entrepreneurship, have a similar effect on different municipality types.